Fever or an epidemic?
by Nadira Gunatilleke
The `fever’ starts in the month
of March. No matter which grade you are in and what school you attend.
You get the fever at the same time all the other young schoolboys all
over Sri Lanka get affected. It is not a disease...it is big match
fever! Big match fever is something fun something to enjoy once a year
and something very innocent but when it becomes an epidemic? We are
going to talk about big match fever today because it is no more a fever
here in Sri Lanka, especially in the city of Colombo. It has become an
epidemic!
 No point of talking about how this big match `fever’ started in Sri
Lanka who started it and how it became an epidemic. The main point is
how it affects the public today and especially how it affects the people
who do not have whatever connection to this `epidemic’. The most
affected group is young girls. You can argue that many girls like to be
get `affected’ ! But here in Sri Lanka still there are girls who do not
wish to get harassed in public! So it is your duty not to harass them.
If you do, you will end up here in the Sunday Observer Magazine! Do you
like to get negative publicity?
Do you want your school to be named as one of the notorious? I don’t
think so. Bad publicity is much worse than getting punished by the law!
The other fact is collecting money from the public to have fun and
`celebrate’. It is all right to collect money from the people who are
willing to give and do whatever you want using that money with the
consent of the parents. But what is happening at the moment is not
having fun or celebrating. It is collecting money forcefully while
harassing the public in every way.
Then using the money collected to `have fun’ and `celebrate’ in a
negative way with liquor.
It is time to get the contribution of law enforcement officers to
curb this dangerous social epidemic. The schoolchildren need to be
treated as schoolchildren. But how about the schoolchildren acting worse
than adults? How they should be treated? If they act like adults and
sometimes act much worse than adults. What type of treatment do they
deserve? They cannot be treated as just schoolchildren and ignore their
acts considering them as `funny’. They need to be treated accordingly.
It is the responsibility of the public to react and demand such action.
Law enforcement officers too have a main role to play here.
 Enjoy the big match fever. Enjoy without making it an epidemic that
cause other diseases in public. Don’t get hurt and do not hurt others
especially the common society. Don’t interpret your freedom as `wild ass
freedom’ and violate the human rights of the innocent people.
Our human rights are entirely different from the `human rights’ that
are preached and introduced by the colonialists who introduced the big
match `epidemic’ to our countries. So better if you can let the people
walk freely in city streets without any harassment or interference. It
will protect you and the public. Why invite unnecessary trouble in the
name of fun? |
